N.C. House Overrides Stein Vetoes of Immigration, DEI Bills

Republicans in the state House voted on Wednesday to override Democratic Gov. Josh Stein’s vetoes of four bills that would crack down on illegal immigration and curtail diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts at state agencies and schools. 

Republicans are one seat shy of the supermajority needed to override vetoes in the House. But Democratic state Rep. Shelly Willingham and now-unaffiliated Rep. Carla Cunningham were absent from the floor Wednesday afternoon, despite attending a rules committee meeting hours earlier. Their absences gave the GOP the three-fifths majority needed to overcome the governor’s veto. Neither Willingham nor Cunningham immediately responded to requests for comment.

Stein voiced his frustration with the overrides, particularly as state lawmakers have yet to advance a long overdue state budget.

“As the legislature leaves teachers and law enforcement officers waiting for hard-earned and desperately needed pay raises, members of the General Assembly are stoking the culture wars that divide us rather than fulfilling their long-overdue responsibility of passing a budget,” Stein said in a statement. “It’s time for them to do their jobs for the people of North Carolina. Instead, they are overriding my veto on bills to whitewash the diversity that makes our state strong and to take state law enforcement officers away from their existing state duties, forcing them to act as federal immigration agents.”

All four bills—House Bill 171, Senate Bill 153, Senate Bill 227, and Senate Bill 558—initially passed the floor along party lines, as did the votes on Wednesday. The Senate—where Republicans hold an outright supermajority—already voted to override Stein on the three bills that originated in that chamber. It is expected to hold a vote on the fourth bill, which would eliminate DEI in state agencies, next week.

“It appears these override votes here that we are seeing today are very well choreographed,” Democratic Rep. Deb Butler of New Hanover County said on Wednesday.

In response, House Speaker Destin Hall noted he had released a calendar showing on which days he might hold votes.

“I realize there are certain members who are against the subject matter in these bills and that’s fine, but that doesn’t call into question this body at all,” Hall said. “This body has, frankly, bent over backwards to give notice to members of both parties when we’re going to be here. And we’ve been here about two days a week.”

The House didn’t attempt to override Stein’s veto of another piece of legislation, Senate Bill 50, which would allow most adults to carry a concealed handgun without a permit. But Republican state Reps. William Brisson and Ted Davis opposed the bill when it was passed last year. 

House Democratic Leader Robert Reives declined to comment on the absence of Cunningham and Willingham. Instead, he laid the blame on Republicans for holding the votes.

“If you’re short-sighted, then all you’re doing is trying to protect the fact that you’ve gotten ahead and don’t want anybody else to get ahead,” Reives said after the vote. “That is disappointing when government gets to that point.”

Hall, meanwhile, declined to say whether he had spoken to the two lawmakers before the votes.  The Democratic Party had rebuked both of them for votes they cast last year, and both lost their reelection bids in the March primary.

“I’m not going to have a discussion about what I talked about members with,” Hall told The Assembly shortly after the overrides. “You can talk to them. Obviously, I was up there on the dais and looked out and they were not here today, and I saw that all our members were here. As I’ve been very open about publicly, the day that we have the votes to do an override, we were going to override. Everybody knows that.”